Changing the Answers
by David Ginsberg
Summary: AU season 5 in which Shawn decides to stop concealing his natural intelligence, sequel to my story Everlong.
1. Chapter 1

Cory and Topanga met Shawn in front of the school building."Shawnie! How was the train?" Cory asked excitedly.

"Ugh. We got delayed for 20 minutes outside of Manayunk. You know, I was planning to get here early and now the whole thing is shot."

"Early? Who are you and what have you done with Shawn Hunter?"

"I'm turning over a new leaf. Take a look at my schedule."

Cory took the schedule Shawn handed him and read. "AP Chemistry, AP French, AP English Lit, Film studies, lunch, Trigonometry, Creative Writing, AP US History, AP Human Geography. Wait, Shawn, we only have one class together!"

"Yeah, but I made sure we have the same lunch."

"When did you get so smart?"

"Cory, do you remember in sixth grade when we took that IQ test, and I let you copy off my paper before I changed the answers?"

"Yeah, and then when they were going to send me to that weird school you made me tell my parents we'd found the answer key in the trash."

"Ok, well I'm done changing my answers."

Topanga followed Shawn to the chemistry classroom. They made it just before the bell. The teacher used the roll call to assign lab partners.

"Hunter, Shawn."

"Here." Shawn raised his hand, and the teacher looked at him.

"Wait, aren't you that kid who moved in with Turner last year?"

"Uhh…yeah."

She look back down at the roster "Are you sure you're in the right class?"

"Yes." There was a slight edge to Shawn's voice.

"Very well, you're with Miss Lawrence and Mr. Minkus."

Shawn got up and took a seat at a lab table with Topanga and a horrified-looking Minkus.

"This can't be happening," Minkus muttered. He had gotten taller, but changed nothing about his clothes or, apparently, feelings towards Shawn, since they'd last been in classes together in sixth grade.

"Relax, Minkus, I'm not going to mess with you."

"Yeah right, the poor man's James Dean shows up in an AP class because he's discovered a sudden interest in chemistry, I suppose."

That gave Shawn an idea for a poem, which he scribbled in the margins of his notes as the teacher started her lecture:

 _I am the poor man's James Dean_

 _The Fonze of the 90s_

 _Bowdlerized and airbrushed_

 _For the girls with Lisa Frank binders_

 _Who don't understand_

 _Why they want to hold me._


	2. Chapter 2

Jack came home to find his younger brother sitting on the couch, scribbling furiously in a notebook. A pile of other notebooks lay beside him.

"What have you been up to?"

"Homework for my creative writing class. We're supposed to write a short story." He looked at the pile of notebooks. "But this is turning into more of a novella."

"You mind if I read it?"

"Go ahead, let me know if you think it's any good."

Jack picked up the bottom notebook and began reading. It was actually surprisingly engrossing, even though Jack usually preferred nonfiction. The story loosely focused on two teenaged brothers who went on a road trip to find James Dean's grave and had a number of philosophical conversations en route.

Shawn got up to get another pen.

"How is it?"

"This is really good. Is the Cole character supposed to be based on me?"

"No, Cory. You think I need to change the name more?"

"No, nobody'd recognize it. This kid's way smarter than Cory."

"Hey, he's not an idiot."

Jack looked at Shawn skeptically.

"Ok, but he's _my_ idiot, and he's the reason I didn't turn out a lot worse than I did, so cut him some slack."

"If you say so." Jack really didn't like Cory, but he didn't want to press the issue with Shawn. If there really was something more than friendship between them, which the phrase "my idiot" seemed to indicate, he didn't want to get between it.

Shawn appeared to finish the novella and switched to his trigonometry textbook. Jack remembered that he had reading of his own, and skimmed through it before ordering Chinese food for dinner.

When he came back upstairs with the food, Cory was in the living room with Topanga and a camera.

"What's going on?"

"It's for our film class," Shawn explained, "Cory's doing a spoof of _The Real World."_

"And we're in it?"

"You guys are the only attractive 20-somethings with a large apartment in the big city and really dramatic personal problems I know," Cory admitted.

"I told Cory I'd be in his project if he was in mine."

"What's your project?"

"It's a horror movie spoof based on the recurring nightmare I have every time Cory and Topanga break up."

"Jesus, I'm in over my head here." Jack muttered. Cory poked the camera into his face. "I don't think the mic picked that up, can you say it a little louder."

Jack swatted the camera away. "Look, I only ordered food for three people."

"Don't worry," Cory said, "I'll just sit back and get some b-roll."

Topanga sat down at the table.

"How long is this going to go on?" Jack asked.

"Until he realizes you're not going to have a big emotional blow up and kick Shawn out of the house."

Shawn leaned in "He's not?"

"I didn't mention that you guys had resolved the issue with the letters when he came over to apologize, so he thinks you're going to torment Jack about it without actually telling him why you're upset until he finally gives up on you."

"Dang, he's got me pegged. Why didn't you tell him?"

"You have to admit, you let him off pretty easy."

"I mean, the getting me to move in with Jack part actually worked out."

"True, but if I'm going to be living with this guy for the rest of my life, he needs to learn boundaries."

"Ok, how about we try another way of teaching it?"

"I'm game if you are."

Shawn turned around in his seat. "Cory."

Cory appeared to be inventorying the furniture. "Yeah, Shawn."

"Jack's mom was hiding the letters from him. We talked it out."

Cory whirled around. "Really?"

"Yeah, so there's not going to be any drama."

"I'm taking him ice skating as soon as we can get passes to Pennbrook's rink." Jack volunteered.

"How am I supposed to do a _Real World_ spoof without any drama?"

"Wait," Shawn interrupted. "You were going to let me walk out on literally the only biological relative I have that doesn't have a criminal record, for a class project?"

"Don't worry," Eric yelled, "the girl next door just broke up with her boyfriend, and Jack and I are totally going to fight over who gets to go out with her."


	3. Chapter 3

Angela Moore hadn't really wanted to take a film studies class; her taste in movies ran towards horror movies that she was sure wouldn't get the approval of the instructor. But she'd moved too late in the summer to have much choice in electives. She had decided to make her film project a documentary about the area, which she thought was a good way of getting a feel for the new place. She was starting to rethink this decision, since the other kids' ideas were way more creative.

Shawn Hunter, who Libby Nelson had informed Angela was the resident "troubled cutie" of John Adams Junior/Senior High School, was doing a scripted drama which appeared to revolve around him attempting to get his best friend Cory's brother arrested to win a contest. (According to Libby, Cory had spent all of junior high school trying way too hard to impress people, and then gotten really weird. No one knew why Shawn was such good friends with him, although Libby's personal theory was that they were gay lovers). Cory's project was a really obvious spoof of _The Real World,_ set in Shawn's apartment. From watching the clip Cory presented in class, Angela wasn't really sure what Shawn's current living arrangement was, but it appeared that after some incident involving letters didn't turn out to be as dramatic as Cory thought it would be, the rest of the movie would focus on Cory and Shawn's respective brothers' attempts to date the same girl.

Shawn had left his trigonometry textbook in the classroom, so Angela picked it up to give it to him. When she caught up with him he was arguing with Cory.

"I thought you were going to cut out the part about the letters."

Angela sensed that she shouldn't be listening to this conversation, but she didn't know how else to give Shawn his trig textbook.

"It adds depth to your character. Without that, you're just going to be standing there watching Jack and Eric fight."

"I think my character already has enough depth, everybody in the class doesn't need to see my personal issues play out."

"They already know about your personal issues."

"The new girl doesn't."

"Angela?"

"Yeah. I was going to ask her out, but now…" Shawn closed his locker, saw Angela, and got a horrified look on his face.

"Oh, come on. Girls like bad boys. Besides, she only knows about the letters. She doesn't know about the time you joined that cult or blew up the mailbox, or about how your Dad ran out on you and left you with Mr. Turner for two years, or about what he does when he is here…"

"Cory!"

"What?"

"Turn around."

Cory turned around and saw Angela.

"Angela! We were just…not talking about you."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to listen in. Shawn, you dropped your math book." She handed the textbook to Shawn.

"Thanks, and, um…don't worry about it. One of the things you'll find out about this place is that it's literally impossible to have a conversation without the last person you'd want to overhear it walking up behind you."

"I see. If it's any consolation, Libby Nelson already told me everything, except the cult, and the part where you're attracted to women."

"Yeah, umm…if while you're doing this documentary someone comes up to you in a coffee shop and wants to show you a place called The Center, that they're really insistent isn't a cult, run the other way."

"And if I ever decide to go through a Natalie Wood phase, I'll let you know."


	4. Chapter 4

Jack was perusing a copy of _Coping Strategies for Adolescent Survivors of Abuse_ while Shawn talked to his father on the phone and Cory filmed. Shawn tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, is it cool if Dad comes over for a while tonight?"

"No way, he doesn't come into this apartment under _any_ circumstances."

Shawn put the receiver back to his mouth. "He says he doesn't want you coming to the apartment…Well I can't do anything, it's his apartment…You don't have to yell."

Jack stood up. "Give me the phone, Shawn."

Shawn reluctantly handed over the receiver. Chet was in mid-rant, and hadn't noticed.

"This is Jack. Call time's over." Jack slammed the phone down into its cradle.

Shawn glared at him, apparently resenting the interruption. "Look, maybe I should just go back."

"No, Shawn, you can't go back. If you go back, you're going to have the same exact argument with him over some other bullshit, and you know what the difference is going to be?"

"What?"

"The next day at school you're going to be lying about some bruise you got, and Feeny, and Turner and your weird little friend here are going to be walking around with knots in their stomachs because they know what really happened."

Shawn couldn't argue with that, except to note that in his present state Cory would probably be more concerned that he'd missed the chance to get it on film, and that Wendy, the theatre major who had managed to get both Shawn and Jack's numbers within the past week, had just walked into the room.

"Wow, that was really good. What play is it from?" Wendy asked.

"Huh?"

Cory panned the camera over to Wendy. "The scene you were acting out."

Something in the irrational part of Shawn's brain told him that Wendy realizing that they were discussing his actual life would prove deeply embarrassing.

"It's called _I Never Sang for My Legal Guardian."_

Jack realized what Shawn was trying to do, and decided he needed to extricate himself from the situation.

"It's Shawn's school play, I was just helping him go over the lines."

"Awww…that's sweet. You guys are both really great actors. Ready, Jack?"

"Ready." Jack and Wendy left, leaving Shawn and Cory alone in the apartment.

"You realize you're deleting that footage, right?"

"Of Wendy?"

"I mean, I guess you can keep that if you want. I meant me and Jack fighting, and also the shots of me in the shower from earlier."

"Ok, fine."

"Wait, what are you going to use the footage of Wendy for if you can't use what led up to it."

"Shawnie, you just lied to Wendy. You know what happens when you lie?"

"What?"

"It spirals out of control into a series of increasingly desperate attempts to cover up until you're forced to confess."

"That doesn't _always_ happen."

"Yes it does, the IQ test, the quiz show, the bed and breakfast..."

"Technically you still haven't told the truth about the IQ test. Also, remember that time we dressed up as girls for your newspaper column?"

"Yeah."

"We aren't girls."


	5. Chapter 5

Jon had just gotten back from a date and turned on the 11 o'clock news when he heard a knock on the door. He answered it to find Jack Hunter standing in his hallway.

"Let me guess, you need help with Shawn."

"Yeah."

"Come in."

Jon went in the kitchen to get a soda while Jack sat down on the couch and watched Bob Dole fall off of a stage.

"To start with, I'd recommend you take up jogging."

"Jogging?"

"It releases endorphins, sort of like a natural high. It's great stress relief."

"Thanks, but what do I do about Shawn?"

"That depends, what happened?"

"He was talking to his dad on the phone. It's in whatever agreement they signed."

"Right, and now he wants to move with him."

"Maybe. He wanted Chet to come over to the apartment. I said no, and we kind of had a fight about it, and he said maybe he should just go back."

"That sounds like he's testing you. Why did you say Chet can't come to the apartment?"

"My mom really doesn't want me to see him. I think she's worried I'll fall for his act and get sucked in. To be honest, I don't really want to see him either."

"I wouldn't either in your position. The best advice I can give you is to make sure he knows there are boundaries but that you'll be there even if he crosses the boundaries."

"Thanks."

"Look, while I've got you here, has he talked at all about any long term plans? College, career interests?"

"No. He's taking a film class, but I think that's just so he can have a class with that weird friend of his."

"Cory?"

"Yeah. They're trying to teach him a lesson by casting him in their project. I don't really understand it."

"Don't worry about it. Cory's a good kid."

"Let's see. He wrote that book for your class. He was really enthusiastic, but he hasn't said anything about wanting to be a writer or anything."

"He should be."

"You read the book?"

"Only one chapter. The assignment for my class has a 30,000 word maximum."

"It's really good."

"I'll bet. I've always hoped he'll try to get something published someday."

"My stepdad's family's in publishing. You know Schulman and Schuster?"

"Huh, small world."

"Anyway, I could maybe work out a deal for him."

"Careful how you sell it. He hates being the recipient of charity, so you can't lean too hard on your connections, or you'll scare him off."

"Ok. I'll think of something. And I'll make sure he lets you read the rest of that book."

"Thanks."


	6. Chapter 6

As luck would have it, Shawn had a date with Wendy the next evening.

"So, do you think I could get a ticket to see your play?" Wendy asked as they sat down.

"Ah, man, I wish you'd told me earlier. It's sold out."

"Oh, well. That's pretty good, though."

"Ah, we have a small auditorium."

"But still, for just a freshman in college."

"Huh?"

"You're not in college? That explains why I haven't seen you around campus." She reached for a free. "It's like, really brave that you're not going straight to college after high school."

"After high school?"

"Yeah, I think it's great you decided to follow your dreams like that, instead of…"

"No, Wendy, I'm still in high school. How old did you think I was?"

"Like, 19 or 20. Did you like, flunk a grade or something?"

"No, I'm 16. I'm Jack's kid brother. I'm sorry, I thought you knew."

"Wait, but we…I should go."

Wendy got up and left, to be replaced by Cory, who pointed the video camera in Shawn's face and helped himself to the remainder of Wendy's fries.

"So what's the scheme?"

"She totally bought the sold out line and then dumped me when she realized how old I was."

"She didn't know how old you were?"

"I guess she saw three guys living together and assumed we were all in college. I don't get it. If anything I look _younger_ than I am." Shawn snapped his fingers. "Hey, that gives me an idea for my next story for Turner's class."

"What happened to the road trip one?"

"Too long. This will be just the right length for a seminar. I gotta get home and work on it. See you tomorrow."

Cory came home to find his father on the couch watching football.

"I lied about the IQ test we took in sixth grade," he confessed, "we didn't find the answers in the trash, Shawn let me copy of his paper before he changed the answers."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because nothing makes sense anymore!"


	7. Chapter 7

The next day found Shawn and Cory in the hallways of John Adams High School filming Shawn's class project. Topanga was doing the actual filming, while Jack, who was playing Ted the thuggish older brother, read over his lines.

Cory, playing Saul Jaeger, took the first line.

"Hey, my Dad called from the White House. He got to use the oval toilet!"

Shawn walked in from off camera, perfectly imitating Cory's mannerisms. "The only thing I want to hear is an explanation!"

"About the tape. Look, I'm sorry."

"That's not an explanation! Why did you rip out my tape?"

"Maybe I don't owe you an explanation, Connor. Maybe sometimes you should just butt out of other people's personal lives." Cory's acting wasn't really selling it.

"I could have won an award, Saul!"

"For what, getting other people in trouble for one of your hare-brained schemes!"

"Saul, those guys were stealing computers."

"Oh, right, they steal one computer and they're the worst person in the world. Did you ever think that maybe they had a good reason to steal those computers."

"Like what."

"Maybe it was the computer's fault. Maybe the computer wasn't working right, and it made them mad. Maybe they'd had a little too much to drink the night before and the computer was making noise."

"Cut!" Shawn yelled, and Topanga turned off the camera.

"Did you think I was overselling it?" Cory asked.

"Do I really act like that?"

"Wait, this character's supposed to be based on you?"

"Yes, this whole movie is based on that time you got Eddie arrested."

"Oh yeah, how is Eddie?"

"He's up for parole in six months."

"Oh, good for him."

Topanga cut in. "The point, Cory, is that we're trying to teach you a lesson."

"She wanted you to act like I was still mad at you for like another week after the poetry incident, so you're getting off easy."

Cory turned to Topanga. "You wanted him to fake being mad at me?"

"Cory, you have to learn not to get so fixated on some plan you come up with in your head that you ignore the effect you're having on your friends."

"I guess you're right. Can we take it from the top?

They took their places and Cory started redoing the scene.

"Hey, my Dad called from the White House." Cory ran his hand through a non-existent lock of hair. "He got to use the Oval Toilet."

"The only thing I want to hear is an explanation!"

Cory pouted expressively "About the tape. Look, I'm sorry."

"That's not an explanation! Why did you rip out my tape?"

Cory perfectly imitated the look Shawn had given Jack when they first met. "Maybe I don't owe you an explanation, Connor. Maybe sometimes you should just butt out of other people's personal lives."

"I could have won an award, Saul!"

"For what, getting other people in trouble for one of your hare-brained schemes!"

"Saul, those guys were stealing computers."

"Oh, right, they steal one computer and they're the worst person in the world. Did you ever think that maybe they had a good reason to steal those computers."

"Like what?"

"Maybe it was the computer's fault. Maybe the computer wasn't working right, and it made them mad. Maybe they'd had a little too much to drink the night before and the computer was making noise. But then again, maybe that's what computers do when they're little, and if they had a computer, they should have dealt with it like an adult instead of going out to get drunk every night while the computer was in hibernate mode. Maybe if they'd taken a look in the mirror instead of putting their fist through the monitor, the computer's mother would still be around. Maybe they shouldn't have spent the computer's entire life telling it that it was a worthless, worn out old Commodore 64 when it was really Deep Blue. Maybe this computer is going to go out and change the world, as soon as it finally wakes up and realizes how much RAM it really has."

Cory realized that he had given up any pretense of acting, and was jabbing his finger in Shawn's face. "Um, sorry about the improvisation. I guess, I got a little carried away again."

"No, it was good. I think we can go ahead and cut that line."

Jack stood up. "So this is why you're friends with him, huh."

"Yep."


	8. Chapter 8

Jack came home to find Shawn in the living room, listening to Counting Crows and working on what looked like Chemistry while Eric read a philosophy textbook.

"So how'd the movie go over?"

"Mr. Williams thinks you make a good delinquent."

"Not sure how to take that."

Shawn grinned and jokingly threw a hackey-sack to him. "It's the Hunter in you coming out."

"Greeaat. So listen, I was talking to Turner."

"What did he say?"

"He said the key to living with you to is to set boundaries. So to start with," Jack pulled a set of headphones out of a grocery bag, "either start using these or start listening to music that doesn't make me want to move to Seattle and slit my wrists."

"Sure," Shawn took the headphones and plugged them into the CD player.

"He also says he wants to see the rest of that novel you wrote. You ever think about getting that stuff published?"

"What, like a book?"

"Yeah."

"Who'd want to publish something I wrote?"

"Come on, you're a great writer."

"Yeah, but I'm just a high school kid. Don't you need, like, an MFA or something to be a writer?"

"No, my step-dad's company publishes unsolicited manuscripts all the time."

"You should send him the story you wrote about the Eskimo." Eric suggested.

"I haven't read that one." Jack said.

"You should. It made me cry."

"Ok," Shawn retorted, "what if it gets published and it's really bad, huh? Everybody at school will make fun of me."

"You could use a pen name, but not Plays With Squirrels, that's my name for if I ever become a hermit. Ooh, you could be 'Rider Strong.'" Eric stood up and spread his arms for emphasis as he pronounced the pen name.

"What kind of books are we talking about here?" Jack asked skeptically.

"You want something less unusual? How about 'Matthew Lawrence.'"

"What about just S.P. Hunter? Kids at school won't be able to trace it back to you, and a lot of big name writers go by their initials: ee cummings, J.D. Salinger…"

"S.E. Hinton," Eric chimed in.

"Look," Shawn stood up, "I appreciate what you guys are trying to do here, but I just don't want to put myself out there like that."

"Come on," Jack reached for something supportive to say, "you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."

"Jack, if I may." Eric leaned over the table intently, "Shawn, you're a great kid and you have a lot of potential, but sometimes, you can be your own worst Eskimo."

Shawn thought for a moment. "You're right. I'll type it up and mail it tomorrow." He got up and went over to the computer.

Jack stared at Eric for a second. "How did you do that?"

"You gotta read the story, man."


End file.
